19A: "Lucy, you got a __ 'splainin' to do!": LOTTA. It seems what he really said was "...some 'splainin' to do." but this quote has been used quite often by others.

20A: High on the hwy.: DUI. Driving Under the Influence covers drugs, DWI - Driving While Intoxicated covers alcohol. [ Dick said BTW in western PA we now use DUI to cover both drugs and alcohol violations. Is that customary in other areas of the country? Come to the comments area and let us know.]

21A: Scatterbrained: DITSY. And 43A: Screwy: LOCO. Lucy, before she became DITSY, showing off her gams.

63 comments:

Good morning, Argyle, C.C. and gang - hopefully through with whatever this bug was. Carol, a belated Happy Birthday.

A pretty easy Monday puzzle; just under 4 minutes, without a pause. However, I had no idea as to the theme until the very last fill. Argyle, great catch on the 2-for-1.

I also agree with Argyle that Desi typically said, "you got some 'splainin' to do". It's even been used on here from time to time. The rest of the puzzle was very straightforward - lots of the usual suspects for clues.

Today is All Souls Day, Deviled Egg Day, and Look for Circles Day. Yeah, I said 'huh?' too.

Today's Words of Wisdom: "Life's under no obligation to give us what we expect." -- Margaret Mitchell

A couple more Steven Wright quotes:

"You know when you put a stick in water and it looks bent? That's why I never take baths."

"Once I tried to kill myself with a bungee cord. I kept almost dying."

Good morning C.C. and all, another easy Monday puzzle today. I guess it makes up a bit for my problems yesterday. Not much to comment on today other than the interesting theme. I got the theme, but not until I had filled in 71A.

BTW in western PA we now use DUI to cover both drugs and alcohol violations. Is that customary in other areas of the country?

Well it is appropriate to come full cycle with a Pancho Harrison puzzle (our very first LAT constructor) after such a fun week. The them meant nothing, but there were some fun clues, but it is Monday, so everyone have a great weak, especially Carol - Happy Birthday, belated or not (I celebrate for 30 days, just in case...). Most attorney use ‘Esq.’ as the indication of profession, certainly not ATT.

I have not practiced criminal law in a while, but it is my understanding most states use the 'DUI' designation as Driving Under the Influence, of any substance. Or they use 'DWI' meaning Driving While Impaired, not the old Intoxicated. In either case, people should have enough concern for themselves or the rest of the world to not drink, or drug and drive. There are tons of designated drivers, and taxis and buses. Be careful out there.

Morning, CC, Argyle and Friends. I had fun with today's puzzle. I loved the double TIME theme. As soon as I saw the star, I jumped to the clue that identified the star. I knew quickly to look for a Time clue. Still, for a Monday, I found it a bit of a challenge. Just the thing to start what I anticipate will be a difficult week.

High on the Hwy was a great clue. In LA, DUI is the term used. I hear a lot of DUI cases. You'd be surprised by the excuses one could come up with for the DUI.

If the clues for RABBI and ISLAM, had been located a little higher in the puzzle, we might have had Peace in the Middle East!

We must not fear daylight just because it almost always illuminates a miserable world. ~ Reme Magritte.

Gams: One source thinks this word comes from Parlyaree (theatrical argot), which supposedly got it from Italian gamba "leg", from Late Latin gamba "hoof". Another source doesn't mention the Parlyaree derivation, but takes it from gamb "leg of an animal on a coat of arms", which came directly from Old French gambe, the northern form of jambe "leg". Then the Latin gamba comes into the picture again. Some say that Latin got its form from Celtic camba "crooked", referring to the crook in most animals' hind legs (also evidenced in the term dogleg used to mean a S-type curve in a road). Gam has been around since at least 1781.

The confusion over the meaning of moot point is modern. It is a misunderstanding of another sense of moot for a discussion forum in which hypothetical cases are argued by law students for practice. Since there is no practical outcome of these sessions, and the cases are invented anyway, people seem to have assumed that a moot point means one of no importance. So we’ve seen a curious shift in which the sense of “open to debate” has become “not worth debating”.

Al,Isn't it neat the way foreign words can often explain our slang expressions? Thanks for LOCO! I wonder if the Spanish picked up on it from the influence of the Moors in Spain--I assume they spoke something like Arabic.

Well this truly was a Monday puzzle...I didn't even put the pen down, although could not beat 'Dennis time'. I couldn't remember Tori Spelling but the fills fixed that.

Lemonade - I forgot why attorneys use Esq after their names...also what is the difference between Atty at Law and Atty in fact. I feel stupid as I used to know that one. Thanks.

Loved the picture of Betty Grable..she was before my time, but notice her figure..sure different from the movie stars and run-way models that are in vogue today! In her day as size 12 was very respectable.

Had a very nice birthday dinner last evening, our son made grilled salmon with lemons. Delicious! It was also our 39th wedding anniversary so it was a doubly nice day (and the sun was out for most of it) ::

In Maine, the abbreviation OUI is used, for operating under the influence. And I believe it covers driving a snowmobile as well as a car.

And they Royal Spanish Academy lists the origin of LOCO as "Quizá del ár. hisp. *láwqa, y este del ár. clás. lawqā', f. de alwaq, estúpido; cf. port. louco" (perhaps from hispanic arabic *láwqa, and this from classical arabic lawqā', feminine form on alwaq, stupid; cf. port. louco), which would seem to agree with what dictionary.com gave as loco's etymology.

Good Morning All, A hugh "Aha!" moment was definitely 71A TIME. This may have been an easily filled in Monday puzzle, but those theme entries were some of the most clever I've seen. It must have taken constructor Pancho Harrison a lot of his own TIME to come up with four two word phrases in which each word could form another phrase when started with TIME. Then, he figured out a way to fit them into a Monday level puzzle. I'm impressed.

On DUI, I can't add anything. IF (no admissions here) I have ever been under the influence of anything, I haven't been behind the controls of any moving vehicle...OK, there was the time with the beer and the bike, but the bike had a flat tire, so I didn't even get out of the driveway.

Today's WOW reminded me of this short and to-the-point poemby Stephen Maria Crane.

A man said to the universe

A man said to the universe: "Sir I exist!" "However," replied the universe, "The fact has not created in me A sense of obligation."

Good morning, Argyle, CC and everyone. I did not "get" the theme until I came here either. All in all, it was a very easy puzzle. The only stumper for me was "High on the hwy" Go figure! Does anyone remember the episode of Friends, when Joey misused the meaning of "Moot" he said the term is "moo"..." It is a Moo point" Lol moment for me. Have a great day everyone!

Clear Ayes story of the beer and the bike reminded me of a case I studied in law school. The defendant had been charged with OWI (operating while intoxicated) while riding a horse. The statute made is a crime to be driving various motor vehicles, including "other means of conveyances.". The court found the a horse on thehighway was not an "other means of conveyance" for purposes of a conviction.

I have also heard too many people misuse the word "moot" and make reference to a "mute" point.

If envy is a deadly sin I'm a goner. I envy Pancho's puzzles. They're always clever and clean as a whistle. I also envy his name. There's something about the sound of Pancho Harrison that's alluring, magical, kind of playful.

Favorite fill- USER ID, DITSY, I'D SAY, MRS PEEL, and EASY A.

Bigger sins-

Being LOCO is COOL!Chubby kids eat a LOTTA TOTAL.I AM NO OMANI, NAOMI, I MOAN.

Argyle - great visuals today. The Grable pic is exactly the one I was thinking of.

Without looking it up, does anyone remember who played Steed's partner, before the appealing and delightful Diana Rigg.? Answer at the end of the post. Don't peek!

AWFUL is another word whose meaning has changed over TIME - here to it's opposite. AWEFUL originally meant "awe inspiring" - or awesome, as we now might say. No idea when or how the shift took place.

Absolutely brilliant theme execution today. I'D SAY this is in the top 2% of all the puzzles I've worked. The rest of it - not so much. Some fresh words: CHIT MS-DOS, ECLAIR, SEPIA. But many RERUN, tired fills: T-BAR, OMANI, SLOE, ACME, ERASE.

Even if the quote were right, LOTTA is hard to justify.

In Lord of the Rings novels, I remember the Ent MOOT, which went on for days.

Steed's partner Cathy Gale was played by Honor Blackman, who became more famous in another role.

5:17 today. If this isn't a near-perfect Monday puzzle, I don't know what is. Look at all that themeage! Granted, the "words you can use with this one (TIME)" kind of theme maybe isn't the most interesting, but this one made up for it.

Too bad COO couldn't have been 31d instead of 32d. That way you'd have had COO and MOO on opposite sides of the grid, with MOOT running across in the middle.

I agree with others on what Desi said, I'm pretty sure it was "some splainin'" and not "lotta".

Several people mentioned problems printing out the Sunday puzzle (seems it clips off the corners for some users). For those with this problem, do yourself a favor and go get the free Across Lite software, then go to cruciverb.com to grab the puzzle instead of the LA Times website. The grid (and clues) will print perfectly in Across Lite--even the larger Sunday puzzle.

Had to come back and wish Carol a happy belated birthday and anniversary. It sounds like you had a wonderful day. "Hold my beer"...you got the idea (I was much younger.)

With all those years of Lucy-Desi confrontations, he might have said LOTTA at least once or twice. Maybe he said it in Spanish when he lapsed into one of his exasperated Spanish rants.

Plenty of ladies' GAMS photos today, how about Gerard Butler for the ladies?

Robin, On C.C.'s main blog page "How to Create Comment Links" is under the Olio heading on the right side of the page.

On Pancho Harrison's behalf, I'm with Jazzbumpa and Embien. It is true that the majority of clues and answers were straightforward. Anything we didn't get right away was taken care of with the perps. That is pretty much a given on a Monday. But we seldom get such a wonderfully engineered theme on any day, much less "Easy Monday". Maybe most of you didn't have an "Aha!" moment like I did, but I bet that after groking the 2-for-1 insertion of TIME, you must have said, "Ahhh". For me today's puzzle was more about how long it took to catch the theme than about solving the crossword.

Yes Dennis, how observant of you! I have done two things in my life. I was a flight attendant for United and then went to nursing school. I became a critical care/ER nurse, then a Flight For Life nurse in Colorado.I am in Phoenix caring for a very ill family member.I adore flying of any kind. The biplane was in Maui and I believe it was a Waco. I flew with a dentist friend, who said this aircraft is a remake of a 1935 biplane. Good fun. Do you recognize this plane? Do you fly?

Had to laugh at so many clues/answers reminding me of Sat 'nite'...'scary'. Had a couple of 'period piece's - a beautiful Victorian gown and an authentic pirate outfit..looked like Black Beard himself. 'Gams' were everywhere as were 'ounce's of booze shot thru an ice luge. No 'DTs' or DUIs but some got 'ditsy' as 'chit'. We just 'moo'ved over and 'led' them to a bed. It was still a great 'time' and we're all looking forward to a full 'rerun' next year...after everybody 'dries' out and our heads 'clear'. 'Lotta' laughs.

Jazz, drag the Across Lite icon from the desktop into the dock where you want it. It should stay there until you drag it out.

Al and Carol, yes that's a tilde but you can't put it over an 'n' so I just put it in front of my name to decorate my signature like this.

~ Bill

However, on my Mac, you can put a tilde over an 'n' by typing 'Option n' and then 'n'. Let's see if it will work here. Jalapeño. Cool! Similarly, you can put an accent over an 'e' as in résumé. ¿Did you know questions in Spanish are proceeded with an upside-down question mark?

JzB when you have the A lite on the lower dock hold the mouse down over the A lite icon, a little bubble will appear over it asking you if you want to keep it on the dock, click on that and it will remain there.Dennis, we fly an AS 350 for high altitude and we have a Bell 407. We use a pilot, paramedic and RN configuration.

An attorney at law is an individual who has been admitted to a bar association. These can represent others before the court, on the other side of the "bar."

An attorney in fact, is one who is given specific authority to represent someone, by Power of Attorney, and can only do what is authorized in the POA, and cannot go before a court.

HONOR BLACKMAN played a Dr., an anthropologist, on the Avengers; it was in actuality Blackman’s decision to leave the series for the featured role of pilot Pussy Galore in the second Bond film, 'Goldfinger', which would act as the catalyst that eventually led to dear Mrs. Peel, a longtime favorite.

I am confused by the attempts to clarify, moot is moot and mute is quiet, or silent but debatable. A point cannot be mute, though I probably should be.

Other than Yankee and Phillies fans, does anybody care about the World Series in November?

Lemonade: Of course a point can't be mute. However, I hear too many people (attorneys-at-law and attorneys-in-fact) come before me and state something is a "mute" point. It drives me nuts! Some of these same individuals also "axe questions.

A fun-filled do-able puzzle for me today. You had to like the time themed answers and I agree it must have taken Pancho some "time" to construct this puzzle.

In MN, the drinking while driving offense is usually called DWI, and it does cover alcohol and drugs. here is an article from a recent DWI arrest in none other than a "souped up" lazy boy recliner. It has actually made national news and the police in Proctor, MN are auctioning the "vehicle" on E-bay and I believe they were getting about $40,000 for it. Only in Minnesota...

BTW, Big Brother has hit the house at my work and non-work related websites are now taboo. My posts from now on will be done from home.

Hello All--Great puzzle today. The Time and Time Again theme was very clever but I didn't get the theme until the very last clue of "Time". Good take Argyle and some great links today.

My favorite clues were High on the Hwy. and Had Followers. I read Log-on need as Long on need and couldn't even begin to think of a word that would fit. The perps soon straightened that out. Duh.

I haven't looked for circles since I was teaching first grade. We used to have a day for each of the shapes and I would have a campus walk to find everything we could with the shape of the day. So you see, looking for circles day isn't too far out--for first graders!

Maniac, not just the dogs are having a hard time with the turn back of the clocks. The change in time has me waking up way too early-- before daylight now. I'm a slug-a-bed since I retired so this is not something I like.

Betty Grable and her gams were pinned up in many a troop area during WWII. She was the epitomy of the pinup girl during that time.

What has happened at Jeannie's job seems to be very common. I think that is why many posters lose enthusiasm for the blog. By the time they can check in, most of comments they would have liked to make about the puzzle has already been said.

That shouldn't stop anyone though. There are plenty of other comments to go around and many to be made about previous comments. Sometimes that is the most fun of the day. (Will somebody please say something outrageous, so Windhover will give us a good rant, or Buckeye will give us a good story about "the home".)

Speaking of disappearing, I'm wondering if PJB has recovered from his illness. I hope he is better and will be joining us again very soon.

Clearayes...what really got me nailed was an e-mail sweep and I guess I shouldn't pass along all those tidbits (links) some of you send my way. In this day and age, it's better to be safe than sorry if you want to hold onto your job. I do hate the Big Brother thing though, because who the hell cares if you do the crossword puzzle on your lunch hour? It's not like I am surfing the net for porn. I do that at home :)

#1 Lurker that was for you. Or you Windhover...go into a rant about how Big Brother is ruining our society.

Clear Ayes said: "I think that is why many posters lose enthusiasm for the blog. By the time they can check in, most of comments they would have liked to make about the puzzle has already been said."

Right. That's true for me too as a left-coaster. It's seldom I can find something worthwhile to add by the time I've solved the puzzle. So I resort to responding to stories about families, recipies, how to put a tilde over an 'n' and other good stuff like that. Still, conversations about that stuff are good too.

Hey group, this is my 5th post but had to thank the response to my question about the 'tilde'. Joe asked me because he had apparently been all over the internet trying to find the name of that and I remembered we had a discussion about that some months back. I no sooner posted the question, got your good replies, when I heard him yell up from his 'man-cave/office that he had the answer. Sorry Bill G - I know that was not an earth shaking event, but still, I only wanted to know the name of the little bugger, not what to do with it.. I suppose we could go 'waltzing the tilde'. :)

"Waiting for the cement truck...."Which will actually be delivering a load of concrete, (often called ready mixed concrete)which is composed primarily of cement,sand, stone or gravel,and water.But a lot of people always call it a "cement truck" instead of a "ready mix concrete truck".Old Sage in Virginia Beach